Outfit Journal

Almost two years ago, I started keeping an outfit journal as a way of better getting into touch with my personal style and helping it to evolve. Although I had previously taken photos of my outfits for at least a few years, I believed that capturing my feelings about what I was wearing would be even more beneficial. Well, I was right! At this point, I can unequivocally state that my outfit journal has been the most important tool in my style evolution. And since it continues to produce benefits, I have no intention of giving it up anytime soon.

I’ve shared a number of insights from my outfit journal since its inception and have recently created a separate category for these posts, if you’d like to check them out. In today’s post, I’m going to highlight the shifts I feel my style has made in 2016 thus far, as well as my style goals for the rest of the year and beyond. Most of these shifts and goals are a direct result of my outfit journal, as I capture my feelings there about what I wore and what I would change about each look. Over time, these thoughts have led me to make changes and try new things. Also helpful to my journey are the “outfit of the day” (OOTD) threads on Facebook. Seeing what others are wearing and reading their and others’ comments about those outfits (and mine) has helped me to increase my style awareness and make changes to what I’m wearing.

As longtime readers of this blog know, I have been maintaining an outfit journal since summer 2014. In this journal, I write down what I wore, where I wore it, my feelings about the outfit, and what I could change in order to improve the look. I also rate all of my outfits on a scale of 1-10, and I’ve noticed that my percentage of “9” and “10” ensembles have steadily increased over the months that I’ve been keeping my journal. It only takes a few moments each day, but the benefits have been well worth the effort.

Keeping an outfit journal has helped me improve my style.

The notes about what I would improve upon in future outfit iterations have proved to be the most beneficial part of the process. Sometimes just switching out one piece can add a point or two to an outfit’s rating and have me feeling much more confident in what I’m wearing. These changes generally happen rather organically, as I tend to remember what went wrong in a look without having to go back and refer to my journal. The simple act of writing down my feelings has led me to make subtle shifts in how I dress that have added up to increased satisfaction over time.

As we close out 2015 and the third year of “Recovering Shopaholic,” I thought it would be fun to reflect on how my personal style has evolved over the past decade plus. This is a post I’ve been meaning to do for a while after I had seen another blogger do it, but now seems like a good time since I feel I’ve made a lot of positive changes to my style this past year.

This will be a very photo-heavy post with not as much writing as usual. There is an old saying, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” Well, that is definitely true when it comes to what we wear, but I will also add some commentary throughout to shed some light on what you’re seeing. Some of my older photos are a bit embarrassing for me to post, but I’m sure many of you aren’t exactly thrilled with your outfits from days gone by. It’s all part of the journey, right? It’s important to note that I liked a lot of these outfits while I was wearing them, but there were definitely times when I felt insecure and uncomfortable in my ensembles. Again, that’s probably something most of us could say.

Now that summer is well under way, I wanted to reflect on how my warm weather style has changed since I started this blog two and a half years ago. I took some time to go through my outfit photos from 2013, 2014, and this year. I selected some ensembles that were fairly representative of what I used to wear, as well as a group of looks that fit my current style quite well.

In today’s post, I share eight looks from the past two years, as well as eight looks from 2015. I highlight what I no longer like from the previous outfits and what makes me happy about the current ensembles. I also reflect a bit on what I would change about the older looks to make them work for me today.

It’s summer – what have you been wearing? (photo: Cabrillo National Monument)

It’s been a little while since I last shared some entries from my outfit journal (see the most recent installment here), so it’s high time for another post in the series. For those who are new to the blog, I’ve been keeping a journal of my outfits since last summer. In this journal, I write what I wore, where I wore it, how I felt about my outfit, and what I would change if I had it to do over again. I also try to take photos of my outfits most days so I have both a visual and written representation of what I’m wearing. This process takes me just minutes each day and has helped me tremendously in improving my personal style and wardrobe satisfaction.

What do you like to wear during the summer months?

I’m going to do a mini “series within a series” beginning with today’s post. I will share two outfits from last summer as well as two outfits from this summer. The outfits I’ve selected from last summer are ones that I don’t think work for various reasons. I will share what I wrote about these outfits last year, as well as anything else I notice today about why the look didn’t work. I will also comment on how I would change the ensemble if I were wearing it this summer. The outfits from this summer are ones with which I was quite happy overall. The reason for sharing the new looks is to highlight what I’ve learned as a result of keeping an outfit journal for over a year. I have learned so much and I feel that it shows in what I’m wearing now and how my outfit satisfaction has increased.

I didn’t think I would post another “Lessons from my Outfit Journal” installment so soon, but here’s another one right away. I wanted to do a second post this week, but I’ve been going through a lot of physical and emotional challenges as of late and I just didn’t have it in me to write about anything else today. But these outfit journal posts are relatively easy to write and seem to be popular with readers, so here goes.

What percentage of your outfits do you absolutely love?

A few people mentioned that they like that I’m highlighting themes in these posts, so I will stick to that approach. Since spring is upon us and it’s getting warmer outside, I decided to take a look at some of my maxi-dress outfits from last summer and fall (we have warm autumns where I live).

As in my last post, I will share the outfits in the order of my preference, from least favorite to most favorite today (which won’t necessarily reflect my original ratings). I will highlight where I wore the ensemble, how I felt about it, and what I’d change (if anything) in the future, as well as any follow-on thoughts I’ve had since the outfit journal entry was made.

I can’t believe it’s been close to two months since I shared the last post in my “Lessons from my Outfit Journal” series (see the two previous installments here and here). I have been keeping my outfit journal since July 2014 (more on why and how here) and have been learning a great deal about my wardrobe and style preferences since that time.

Keeping an outfit journal has really helped me improve my style.

One of the things I’ve learned recently is that I now prefer wearing slimmer styles of jeans over the wider-legged jeans that were my mainstay for years. In today’s post, I share four looks that feature boyfriend style and straight-legged jeans. While I’m not a fan of true skinny jeans for comfort reasons (I have varicose veins and a painful nerve condition), I have embraced these two new styles in addition to my boot-cut stand-bys. I show the outfits from least to most favorite and share my outfit ratings, where I went, my thoughts about each look, and what I would change in the future (if anything).